Digital Preservation

In response to the needs of the Canadian Archival System, the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA) is now offering the ARCHIVESCANADA Digital Preservation Service (ACDPS).

To learn more about this new service, enroll in our newACDPS Webinar
or if you are new to digital preservation or want to improve your skills, consider theIntroDPS
– a training package that consists of institution-specific online training sessions and a series of hands-on practical exercises. No previous digital preservation experience is required and you will gain a better understanding of OAIS, digital preservation workflows, preservation metadata and format-specific preservation planning.
You CAN do this!

ACDPSprovides memory institutions access to an affordable preservation service maintained in an optimised technological environment designed to ensure sustainability, long-term accessibility, usability and authenticity of electronic records and digital information objects. ACDPS will complement and build on the success of the national catalogue of archival description available through ARCHIVESCANADA.caand will use the existing grassroots network to provide access to DPS-submitted content.

By subscribing to this CCA governed service, participating institutions will be able to preserve small or large digital collections using the popular open-source, standards-compliant Archivematica and AtoM tools. Archivematica and AtoM software hosting services will be provided in partnership with Artefactual Systems Inc. Secure storage and geo-remote backup will be provided by a Canadian-based storage service provider.

This service is flexible, scalable, self-sustaining and supported through an institutional subscription fee and distributed governance model. The tiered subscription model will offer significant potential to medium and large memory institutions while extending the DPS to smaller staffed organizations and volunteer organizations with limited financial resources to support technical or preservation activities, but which hold digital records of enduring value. This approach will greatly reduce the individual costs to each organization and maximize the scarce financial and technical resources available throughout the Canadian archival community.

The ACDPS has been developed based on principles articulated by the National Archives and Records Administration and Research Libraries Group, RLG-NARA Task Force on Digital Repository Certification andthe Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist (TRAC). These criteria recognize standards and best practices relevant to the community of the repository, as well as those of the information management and security industries as a whole.